[China Packaging Network News] approaching the year, but also to the time of purchase of the New Year. With the improvement of the quality of life, when we buy New Year's goods, especially food, it is not only the pursuit of taste, but also the consideration of its nutritional value and whether it is beneficial to health. At this time, it is important to select the nutrition label on the food packaging.
The nutrition label reveals information and characteristics of nutrients in foods, including nutrition tables, nutrition claims, and functional claims for nutrients. Today, we come to understand this information.
Look at the nutrition table
According to the relevant regulations of China's food labeling, every product shipped after January 1, 2013 must be marked with four nutrients (also called core nutrients), which is what we usually call 3+1, ie, protein, lipids, and carbohydrates. The compound has three capacity nutrients and one sodium, and the ratio of these nutrient contents to the daily nutrient supply reference (NRV). Among them, energy is calculated based on protein, fat and carbohydrates. Looking at nutrient content is a key indicator when shopping for food.
One of the keys here is to figure out what the NRV means. NRV is the abbreviation of Nutrient Reference Values ​​(NRV). It is a reference standard for food labels that compares the content of nutrients in foods. It is a nutrient reference scale for food selection. This value is mainly based on the national dietary nutrient recommended intake (RNI) and appropriate intake (AI).
"NRV%" is the percentage of the daily nutrient reference contained in the main nutrient per 100 g/ml or serving. For example, a pack of 100 grams of instant noodles with 100% "NRV%" of "sodium" means that you have eaten this noodles and sodium intake has reached the daily intake standard. Foods labeled with protein and energy, high or low, can be quickly guided by the NRV, greater than 15% NRV is high, and less than 5% NRV is low.
See the list of ingredients
The nutritional quality of foods depends essentially on the raw materials and their proportions. According to the national regulations, the most abundant raw materials should be ranked first and the least raw materials should be ranked last. Through the ingredients list to buy food, there are several tips:
Foods with nutritious and less supplementary ingredients are healthy. The high and low nutritional value of the main ingredient defines the nutritional value of the food. If the nutritional value of the main ingredient is very low, even if it is not added, it cannot be classified into the category of health food. For example, the first place in the list of ingredients for an egg yolk pie is white granulated sugar, and its main ingredient determines that it is an unhealthy food. Taking oatmeal as an example, two different products, product A ingredient list marked "rice powder, sucrose, maltodextrin, oats, walnuts ..." Product B is expressed as "oat, rice flour, sucrose, maltodextrin, walnut ... ..." Obviously, if you want to get more dietary fiber from cereals, B is better than A.
Read the label carefully and take out the trans fat. If the ingredients contain words such as "margaree," "shortening," "hydrogenated vegetable oil," "hydrogenated fat," "solid vegetable oil," "ghurd," and "manmade ghee," the food definitely contains a certain amount of trans. fat. While paying attention to ingredients on food labels, you should also pay attention to the ranking of these ingredients. If these ingredients are ranked high, you should be especially careful.
Look at nutrition claims
Nutrition claims are the exact description and description of the nutritional characteristics of foods on the nutrition label of foods, including:
Content claim: A claim that describes the level of energy or nutrient content in food. The term “includedâ€, “highâ€, “lowâ€, or “nothing†is used to describe the term, for example, milk is a source of calcium, low-fat milk, high dietary fiber biscuits, and the like.
Comparing Claims: Refers to claims that are compared with the nutrient content or energy value of similar foods that consumers are familiar with. Claiming terms include "increasing" and "decreasing". The claimed difference in energy or nutrient content must be ≥ 25%. For example, ordinary milk powder can be used as a reference food for skimmed milk powder, and ordinary soy sauce can be used as a benchmark food for reinforcing iron soy sauce.
Nutritional function claim: A claim that a nutrient can maintain normal growth, development, and normal physiological functions.
At the same time, we must also pay attention to the fact that defeating fire, clearing the lungs, eliminating thirst, no resistance, no artificial colors, no additives, no allergens, frozen foods, pure chocolate biscuits, and added milk are not part of the nutrition claim. .